Poison Ivy

Many years ago when I was a graduate student at Purdue, one of my favorite classes was a forestry class for education majors. Once each week we had a four hour laboratory, which was usually an appropriate field trip activity. On one of the tree identification trips to the woods we were asked to identify certain trees which had been numbered. I considered myself good at that sort of thing, so I set out to be the first one finished. As I was examining one of the large trees very closely (feeling the leaves, etc.) the instructor asked me if I could identify it. I quickly told him it was a box elder, and he confirmed my correct answer--but then he informed me that what I was actually touching was not the box elder leaf but instead the large leaves of a healthy poison ivy vine entwined in the tree. As you might expect, I developed a bad case of poison ivy from that lab. I have never forgotten it--but I can laugh about it now! As a result, though, I look twice (and sometimes more) before I pull up the many box elder seedlings around our property. Last weekend, I took note of how much poison ivy is growing. Since many people are highly sensitive to it, the best way to get rid of it is with recommended chemicals. It is persistent, so often several applications are required!